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Afghan Special Forces Deployed to Beat Back Taliban in Jaghori

November 9, 2018AfghanistanComments Off on Afghan Special Forces Deployed to Beat Back Taliban in Jaghori2,747 Views

GHAZNI – Afghan special forces were deployed Thursday to beat back Taliban fighters in Jaghori, a district heavily populated by Hazaras.
Heavy fighting in the Jaghori district of Ghazni province has been ongoing since the Taliban launched a pre-dawn attack on two checkpoints manned by local pro-government forces on Wednesday, and raised concerns about ethnic violence.
“Taliban fighters have burned civilian houses, but we don’t have precise information about the number of dead and wounded,” provincial deputy police chief, Ramazan Ali Mohsini, told AFP.
Taliban have been accused of committing human rights violations against Hazaras during their 1996-2001 rule.
Members of Afghanistan’s elite special forces flew into the Jaghori district center on Thursday and were “on their way to the front-line”, President Ashraf Ghani’s deputy spokesman said on Facebook.
Taliban, however, denied they were targeting “any specific race, ethnicity or sect”, in a statement posted on their website.
The attacks were against the “Kabul regime and American hireling positions in Jaghori”, spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid said.
On Wednesday night, the Taliban also attacked an army base in the border area between the northern provinces of Takhar and Kunduz.
Twelve members of the Afghan security forces were killed and eight wounded in the raid, Takhar provincial police chief, Abdul Rasheed Bashir, told AFP.
Takhar provincial health director, Hafizullah Safi, said 20 dead and nine wounded had been taken to hospitals.
A recent US government watchdog report said Kabul’s control of Afghanistan had slipped in recent months as local forces made little or no progress against the Taliban, the country’s largest militant group.
The escalation in violence comes as the Taliban show a tentative willingness to hold bilateral talks with the United States in Qatar.
The group also confirmed Tuesday they would send a delegation to an international gathering in Moscow on Friday that aims to kickstart peace talks between Kabul and the Taliban.
(Sahar News)